ave looked on board beneath her hatches, and out of
sight of the crowded shipping in the bay, he might have counted a
dozen stalwart youths, in the Greek costume, busily employed in
getting everything ready below for a quick run, and as the shadows
deepened over the Oriental scene, and the sun had fairly sunk to
rest behind the lofty summit of Bulgurlu, one or two of the crew
might have been seen quietly engaged here and there on deck, but
their lazy, indolent movements, rather speaking of a long stay at
their present anchorage than an idea of an early departure, and yet
a true seaman would have observed that they were loosing everything,
in place of making fast.

It was nearly midnight when Selim and his party, headed by Aphiz,
left his own ship in a small caique, and quietly pulled with muffled
oars, to the side of the schooner, which they boarded without
hailing. She had been moored the day previous without the outermost
of the shipping, and scarcely had the party got fairly on board,
when she slipped her cable, and showing the cap of her fore-topsail
to the gentle night air that set over the plains of Belgrade and
down the Valley of Sweet Waters, gradually floated away, until by
hoisting a few rings of the flying jib, her bows were brought round,
and she slipped off towards the Black Sea unnoticed.

Not so much as the creaking of a block had been permitted to disturb
the stillness, and now, when Capt. Selim felt too impatient not to
make the most of the favorable land breeze, only the light jigger
sail that was set so well aft as to reach far over the taffrail, was
unfurled easily and dropped into its place, swelling away
noiselessly. As impatient as he felt, he wished to skirt those
shores silently, and resolved to take every precaution that would
prevent a suspicion of the real hurry and anxiety that he felt
from evincing itself.

The cutter hugged the Bithynian shore until it had passed that
rendezvous for the caravans from Armenia and Persia, the favorite
city of Scutari, and then it gradually approached the sea, its
mainsail, foresail and topsails were spread, and before the first
gray of morning broke over the horizon of the sea, the cutter had
almost lost sight of the continent of Europe, and was swiftly
ploughing the waves of the great inland ocean. Classic waters!
laving the shores of Turkish Europe, Asia Minor, the broad coast of
Russia, and that ancient island of Crimea, and finally washing the
mount